Poetry Installations and Activities

Ma Shih-fang: When Poetry and Songs Meet

The synergy of music and literature together has always been appreciated by the audiences. For instance, Bob Dylan, who is the laurel of Nobel Literature Prize 2016, as well as Leonard Cohen who is beloved by poetry fans. Literature is present not only in the Campus Folk Music Movement of Taiwan in 1970s but also in the contemporary music trends. The Festival and Ma Shih-fang, who is knowledgeable of both music and literature, present a radio special featuring poet Yang Ze and musician Wang Yu-jun to discuss some great works that make two fields proud.

Everyone has the right to be happy.Everyone has the right to be unhappy.Everyone may share what he possesses.No-one can share what she/he does not possesses.A cat is not obliged to love its master, but it must help him in difficult times.

Within Lithuania, a district about 0.6 km2 named Užupis declared its own independence on the April Fool’s Day, 1997. Its 41-rights whimsical constitution opened up how people think of freedom and human rights.

How could Taiwan head for a better future if there is no courage and imagination?Taipei Poetry Festival initiates “The Constituent Assembly of Poets,” and invites the public to contribute their imagination of living conditions and social norms for the next peaceful era. 8 poets from different generations and places will select, amend, and create a poets’ new constitution for a more tolerate, free, equal blue print of the future.

The Sound Poetry Workshop and Performance: The Pool and the Soup

Workshop: Friday, Oct 6 – Saturday, Oct 7

Performance: Sunday, Oct 8, 13:00-18:00

Place: Duckstay Hostel

The performance poetry project “The Pool and the Soup” features 10 to 14 volunteers to participate with different languages to talk in their favorite topics, and to rearrange them as a music. Hopefully it will create a vivid picture of the daily language of Taiwan, and help us to really “hear” the diversity and unity of local languages and sound. The performance is 5 hours long, audience can come and go freely.